Weekend Update!

Today was a wonderful Sunday. I slept in until 7am (from my usual 4:15). It felt great! When I woke up, I wasn't quite ready to get out of bed so I decided to start a new book. I just finished reading "Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates--I loved it! It was a great read, albeit depressing, but so captivating. So this morning I started reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini...and haven't put it down all day! I don't know what's with me and choosing to read these depressing books, but they're so well written and such page turners! I actually made more of an effort to do some "pleasure" reading this past semester as a way of maintaining my mental health amidst the school craziness and have been trying to maintain that this summer despite my tight schedule. Needless to say, I think I'll be reading about a book a week at this pace!

Anywho! This week absolutely flew by! I met up with some friends for dinner and we had a great time (I forgot to take pictures!), but of course, I've always got my camera ready for breakfasts, take a look.

 Greek yogurt bowl with a sliced banana, fresh strawberries, and cinnamon.

Van's waffle sandwich with sunflower seed butter on one half, peanut butter on the other, cinnamon, honey, and a banana.

OIAJ--with sunflower seed butter, sliced banana, cinammon.

YMIAJ--Yogurt mess in a jar with a sliced banana, cinnamon, and honey roasted nut mix (sooo good!)

 YMIAJ (again!) but with some blueberries this time! Gettin' those antioxidants :)

 Blueberry oats in a jar with peanut butter.

Finally, YMIAJ with a sliced apple, cinnamon, and mixed nuts.

My breakfasts have been on point this week, sooo delicious! I've got some yogurt in the fridge to eat this week so I'm looking forward to that tomorrow morning.

This week I've been able to get some pictures of my lunches from work, nothing too exciting, and of course the lighting is horrible, but you get the idea.

 Salad beast with romaine lettuce, sliced tomato, bean salad, a hard boiled egg, and some delicious guacamole! I also had an unpictured kiwi for dessert :) LOVE kiwis--and did you know that kiwis have as much if not more potassium than a banana? Super fruit much?

I've got a mix of things going on here in this lunch--fresh steamed zucchini, broiled salmon, sliced tomato, cottage cheese, a bit of tomato sauce, and a piece of toast. I'm on a tomato kick these days. Interesting fact: I used to HATE tomatoes, I would not eat one raw. But, I LOVE ketchup, tomato sauce, and salsa. Weird right? Well no worries, I have come to my senses and love tomatoes now. I've been eating them with every meal!

I've also captured a few dinners from this week:

 Leftover pasta with broccoli rabe, olives, tomatoes, carrots, and a big blog of hummus. And don't worry, I ate half of this bowl before I remembered to take a picture. ;)

I had to stay late at my internship one night so I grabbed a sandwich from Au Bon Pain. I got the hummus and olives on sun-dried tomato bread, but half way through making my sandwich, the employee said to me "I'm sorry miss but we're out of sun-dried tomato bread, olives, and roasted red peppers." I have to admit, I was a bit annoyed--couldn't he have told me this before starting to prep the sandwich? That's okay, the situation was salvageable--I subbed the sun-dried tomato bread for a 7-grain roll, and asked for all of the fresh veggies they had. The sandwich was okay, I really prefer to make my own food, but sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures! *Dramatic*

I've been feeling a little under the weather this week, so in an effort to kick that puppy in the but I treated myself to a few choice items this week :)

 Kombucha! I tried a new (to me) flavor, Cosmic Cranberry, and absolutely loved it. I practically downed that thing!

 I also tried Passionberry Bliss which was also very good, but I like the Cranberry better.

 Chocolate makes everything better...right? I had to get this chocolate bar because 1) It's local to the NY area, 2) It's dark chocolate--my favorite!, 3) it has sea salt--salty and sweet is the best!, and 4) it has whole almonds in it. I got this at Whole Foods and let me tell you, Whole Foods has the best selection of everything (Trader Joe's, you know you're my number 1, but you just don't have the variety of WF).

I've been wanting to try these for a while now ever since seeing them at WF and reading about their quality ingredients and whole grain punch online! I popped open the box the minute I got out of WF to try one (it was one of those days....) I really liked it! It's got the right amount of sweetness mixed with the whole grain and oatmeal taste. Right up my alley! I'm hoping to be able to recreate these at home seeing as their a little pricey for my student budget.

Well, now that we're thoroughly caught up, I'm going to dive nose first back into my book and surface in the morning for another Monday and early day at the office. Catch ya lata'!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there, especially to one very special one in particular, my father! I know that everyone thinks their father is the best Dad in the world, but I'm convinced that mine truly is. Not only is he a wonderful father, he's a wonderful husband, loyal friend, and all around marvelous man. I'm so proud to call him my father. Unfortunately this year, we were unable to spend the holiday together since I'm in New York and he's back in Ohio...but we did get the chance to speak today over the phone and it was wonderful. (I may or may not have teared up a bit while talking to him...)

But enough of the teary talk! Today I spent the day with my host family friends for Father's day. We went to a wonderful brunch, had some ice cream, walked around town, and ended the day at the beach with an Italian take-out dinner. Nothing to write home about (hence the lack of pictures), but I did make up for it with a nice serving of dark chocolate :) (I still have a ton from my Easter basket!)

I promised some more pictures from my time here in New York so far, so here you go!

First up, the NYU International Hospitality Investment Conference at the Marriott Marquis where I was awarded with a scholarship and asked to give a speech to the patrons and scholars. It was such an honor to be able to thank those ladies and gentlemen for their generosity to my school and students.

Funny face--I'm happy though!

Speeching! Yeah, I just made that word up :)

That's me on the end, and our Dean of the school at the podium.

I have to admit, I was a bit scared to give a speech in front of nearly 1000 hospitality professionals, but I got up there and did it!

Like I mentioned, the event was held at the Marriott Marquis, which if you ever get the chance to visit NYC, you should get a tour of the Marquis--it's incredible! Huge. Like, seriously. And of course, this particular luncheon was delicious.

I was a little too nervous before my speech to eat very much, but once it was over I devoured that strawberry cheesecake! Yeah, I'm a beast. :)

I've got another day of work ahead of me tomorrow so "Tata for now!" and I'll catch you tomorrow with an update!

I'm back!

Well, well, well, you may have been asking yourself this past month, "Where the heck is Cindy?!" Oh, no? In case you were, I'm okay! I've since finished my sophomore year at college and started working this summer! I needed this time off to get situated and into my routine here in NYC for the summer. I'm hoping to get into a regular schedule of blogging at night after my day of work! Please stick with me while I work through the process :)

Let's see here, where should I begin in terms of this past month. Perhaps I should start by showing the beautiful town I'm living in outside of NYC. It's g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s!

Hudson River at 5:30am

Hudson River at 6:30pm

Train Station to New York

Yep, that's my ride!

Isn't the river beautiful? I'm so lucky to be staying here this summer with some close family friends. They are absolutely wonderful people, and have an adorable daughter, Sophia! (Can you believe I haven't gotten the chance to take any pictures with her yet?--coming soon!)

You may have noticed under those photos my captions--let me explain. This summer I'm excited to have two wonderful jobs! One as a hostess at a great restaurant and the other as an intern for an hotel valuation and management company! My alarm goes off every morning at 4:15am to make it to work by 6:30am. I then end my day at 5:45pm to catch the 6:20pm train back home. In bed promptly by 9:15pm for another fabulous day! This might sound like cruel and unusual punishment to any other 20 year old living and working in NYC, but it's great for me! I'm a morning person anyway, so hey, what's 4:15am versus 7:30am--I get to see the sun rise! Beauty.

I arrive and depart via Grand Central station everyday.

You may also be asking yourself, how can Cindy possibly get up that early in the morning and be hungry for breakfast? Sometimes I'm not super hungry, but I know it's very important for me to have breakfast because I'm standing for 5 hours at my hostess job without a break. But honestly, I usually am hungry within an hour of getting up--think about it, my last meal was around 7:30pm the night before! My breakfasts have been looking a little something this! (Sorry for the poor lighting and quality--there's not a lot of light early in the morning. Working on it!)

My favorite cereal, Heritage Flakes, with blueberries, milk, and cinnamon!

OIAJ! With a banana, blueberries, and the left-over peanut butter :) YUMM!

Do we see a theme here?

Yogurt bowl--Chobani plain with a banana, blueberries, cinnamon, and mixed nuts.

Pattern again-but with an apple and sunflower seed butter-my fav!

You may have noticed that I'm sticking to things I can bring in a bowl or a jar--these breakfast foods are easier for me to eat on the train. I've been loving a cold yogurt bowl in the morning, but some mornings just call for OIAJ (oats in a jar).

I think this is a good place to leave off--I want to save some other happenings for the next post. Please look forward to that soon :)

Thanks for reading, hope you're having a wonderful Saturday and may your Sunday be full of rest!